Health & Well Being

The author is UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa, OSAA. The following is the text of the statement by Ms. Gawanas from the OSAA website*.

NEW YORK (IDN) – If there ever was a time for full-scale global solidarity and cooperation to fight for health rights that time is now because no one country would ever be able to prevent or fully control the COVID-19 pandemic on its own. We are faced with an unprecedented situation brought about by the emergence and rapid spread of COVID-19, the biggest public health emergency of our time.

GENEVA | NEW YORK (IDN) – Ahead of the virtual Global Vaccine Summit on June 4 in London, the World Health Organization WHO), UNICEF and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, have warned that COVID 19 is disrupting life-saving immunization services around the world. Consequently, millions of children – in rich and poor countries alike – are faced with the risk of diseases like diphtheria, measles and polio.

TORONTO (IDN) – Humanity is facing close encounters with the unfolding crisis of the novel coronavirus SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic. Doctors, nurses, paramedics, and many other essential service providers are on the frontline, risking their lives to save lives through their selfless and dedicated service in their communities and hospitals. These frontline heroes are facing many challenges in performing their noble tasks. Notwithstanding the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), and ventilators in intensive care units (ICUs), they face the risk of contracting the COVID-19 disease due to extensive exposures in their line of duty.

The author is Assistant Professor of Law at School of Ethics, Governance, Culture & Social Systems, Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth (deemed to be university), Ernakulam, Kerala, India.He can be reached on twitter @SnathNamboodiri

NEW DELHI (IDN) – Failures of the patent system to meet the public health priorities demand a new approach in research and development (R&D) financing and incentive to pharmaceutical innovations. An R&D model delinking the cost of R&D from the price of the product is the way forward.

NEW YORK (IDN) – A new fact-checking industry had its hands full recently in Senegal when a fake news post on social media claimed that children were “dying on the spot” from vaccines against the corona virus.

The post, titled “Scandal in Senegal”, was shared thousands of times on Facebook even as the fact checkers insisted it was a hoax.

"There is a big scandal in Senegal,” the misleading news spot was heard to say on a Facebook video in Wolof. “There is a guy who came into a house to vaccinate kids for coronavirus. He vaccinated seven children who died on the spot."

SINGAPORE (IDN) – Weapons of Mass Destructions (WMD) were something that USA and UK coalition forces were trying to find in the armouries of Saddam Hussain in Iraq in March 2003. Anglo-Saxon media was painting the fears of death, destruction and sufferings to humankind unless those weapons were destroyed – justifying the illegal invasion of the allied forces into a sovereign Iraq, violating all international laws and order.

They found neither any evidence of WMD nor chemical weapons for justifying the invasion. Will the COVID-19 too, become an invisible WMD with the ongoing global pandemic which has locked down nearly the entire world economy?

MOSCOW (IDN) – Amid multifold theories and disinformation spreading around the COVID-19 in Africa, it is important for African governments to consider strengthening the existing health systems and infrastructures, and allocate substantial funds for health research and production of basic equipment, for attaining sustainable development goals set in the African Agenda 2063, according to experts.

This article was originally published on openDemocracy. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News

TORONTO (IDN) – Refugees, immigrants, and people on the move have long been tied to tropes of bringing disease and illness. From pandemics to genocides, people crossing borders whether by force or by choice are talked about in apocalyptic terms like ‘flood’ or ‘wave,’ underscored by rampant xenophobia, racism, and elemental fear of ‘The Other’. Not only are these formulations blatantly incorrect, they also legitimise far-reaching state incursion and increasingly hard-line policies of surveillance and techno-solutionism to manage migration.

This article is being re-published by courtesy of The New Republic, which carried it first on April 20.

NEW YORK (IDN) – The butterfly effect is a thought experiment about how a small change in a system— a butterfly flapping its wings — can ripple through complex, interconnected systems, eventually cascading into larger events, like a tornado in Oklahoma. Despite having been popularized by the 1993 Jurassic Park movie, it’s not as far-fetched as it sounds.

This interactive WHO dashboard/map provides the latest global numbers and numbers by country of COVID-19 cases on a daily Basis.

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